Israel's Authority: Resonances of Colonialism in Israel-Palestine Relations
Title: British Mandate: A Double-Edged Sword in Israeli-Palestinian Strife
Author: Dr. James A.S. Sunderland, Research Fellow, Woolf Institute and Research Associate, St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge
In October 2024, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer shook hands with heads of government in Samoa, attending the annual Commonwealth Summit. The conference highlighted a lingering dilemma: reparations for Britain's role in the Atlantic slave trade. Elsewhere across the Commonwealth, nations claimed their independence, leaving behind dark colonial shadows.
But one region still grapples with the remnants of British rule - Israel-Palestine. Between 1917 and 1948, Britain managed the territory in the guise of the Mandate, a poorly disguised instrument of chaos and tension.
After capturing Palestine from the Ottomans, the British left a ticking time bomb: they'd govern an area claimed by both Palestinian Arabs and Jewish immigrants, both sides passionately yearning for their own nation. This tug-of-war antagonized the Middle East for decades, still causing conflict today.
Mementos from the Mandate, like the now-famous "Visit Palestine" posters and the Mandate Palestine pound, have re-emerged as symbols of national identity. These seemingly harmless images, however, have been twisted to hold more weight than they should.
The pound gained new significance among Palestinians, who see the Arabic inscription, "Filastin," as a symbol of the existence of Palestinian identity that predated the establishment of Israel. The posters, on the other hand, now stand as proof of a Palestinian claim to the Old City of Jerusalem - a city divided by animosity and insurmountable religious significance.
However, these artifacts come with complex stories. The "Visit Palestine" posters were initially commissioned by the Israeli Tourist Development Association in 1936 to encourage Jewish immigration - a critical component of Zionist ideology. Meanwhile, the pound was a short-lived attempt to maintain the appearance of impartial currency for both Palestinian Arabs and Jewish immigrants. Today, the pound is Sales mortar for Palestinian nationalism while the posters served as Zionist propaganda in the past.
British rule in Palestine was steeped in controversies, with its currency bestowing undesired support for the Jewish settlers. When the East African Pound was replaced with the Mandate Palestine pound, Jewish immigrants rejoiced. The inscriptions bore unwelcome messages, including the Hebrew acronym "Eretz Yisrael," meaning "Land of Israel." This provoked anger among Palestinian Arabs who saw it as a thinly veiled endorsement of Zionism.
Over a century later, the debate surrounding the British Mandate still rages. Supporters of Israel cling to the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the San Remo Conference in 1920, and other Mandate-era documents as proof of their legitimate claim to the land. They cite these as international and legal assertions, indisputably granting Jews the exclusive right to the land and settlement. However, Palestinians and their allies issue strong rebuttals, arguing that these documents are mere artifacts of colonialism and imperialism, inextricably linked to the exploitation of native populations.
By using these relics, both Israeli and Palestinian sides distract themselves from the true purpose of the Mandate: furthering British control and self-interest. One must look beyond these symbols and dig deeper to understand the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Footnotes:2. Rivlin, Reuven, and Gideon Shimoni. The First Century of the British Mandate in Palestine, 1917-2017: A Historical and Political Reassessment. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.3. Abbas, Saeb. Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Harper Perennial, 2004.4. Zureik, Elias. The Palestinian Refugee Problem: From Catastrophe to Exile, and Civil Society in the Homeland and the Diaspora. Syracuse University Press, 2014.5. Said, Edward W. The Question of Palestine. Vintage, 1992.
Published By: History News Network (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported) Date: 01/22/2025
- The British Mandate, a tool of British control in Israel-Palestine, has seen its symbols like the Mandate Palestine pound and the "Visit Palestine" posters become embroiled in contemporary politics, as both Israeli and Palestinian sides use them to support their contrasting narratives on cultural heritage and national identity.
- The weitght and meanings attached to these Mandate artifacts reflect the entanglement of politics and cultural heritage in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with each side exploiting these relics to legitimize their respective claims over the contested land.
